School officials find one of their players over age limit; Cesafi imposes lifetime ban on cager
Just when the outrage from the controversy surrounding the eligibility of Southwestern University’s high school basketball team appears to have died down, another one has cropped up.
This, as the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) found one of its students to be over the age limit that is required of players who are competing in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) juniors basketball tournament.
READ: 5 Baby Cobras, coach, banned for life; SWU withdraws from Cesafi juniors tourney
According to CEC consultant Mark Tallo, the said player – Marc James Roa – admitted to him that he asked a neighbor to tamper with his birth certificate to make his year of birth, 1995, appear as 1997. After uncovering the deception, school officials quickly informed league commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy of their findings.
The Cesafi then decided to hand Roa a lifetime ban from the league. In addition, the league also forfeited CEC’s 59-43 win over the University of Southern Philippines Foundation, thus giving the Baby Panthers the victory.
CEC now stands with a 1-1 win-loss record while USPF improved their record to 2-1.
In an interview with Cebu Daily News, Tiukinhoy said that prior to the Dragons-Baby Panthers match last week, a lot of people had already shared with him their doubts regarding Roa’s age. This prompted him to ask CEC’s coaches to conduct an in-house investigation before the league oversees one of their own.
The morning after their match, Tallo confronted Roa, who readily admitted to the deed.
WINNING FAIR
Tallo shared with this writer his frustrations about this development.
“Disappointed lang kaayo ko kay this was a player na I fought for. Unya in-ani diay. Ingon siya nako na nabuhat to niya kay gusto daw siya makaduwa ug makaskwela pa. Ni-ana ko niya na dili man kailangan manikas. Pwede ra man unta siya tabangan. Naangol na nuon ang tibuok team,” said Tallo yesterday morning.
CEC head coach Rodmark del Rosario also reiterated that the Dragons want to win but never in this manner.
“We want to do it in a fair and decent manner,” the young head coach said.
It was a sentiment that was echoed by Tallo, who divulged that he had a talented recruit from Davao who was set to suit up for the Dragons. However, the said player had failing marks in his previous records so Tallo had him sent home.
The development is a virtual replay of the incident that hounded SWU, which had five of its high school players and its head coach banned for life from the Cesafi for conniving in the falsification of their birth certificates to make themselves eligible for the juniors tournament.
FORFEIT
In a separate development, the University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars had their 85-68 win over the University of Cebu Webmasters forfeited after most of their players failed to submit their electrocardiogram (ECG) results on time.
According to Cesafi rules, players must submit their ECG results before they are allowed to play.
CIT-U’s college and high school squads forfeited their first games for noncompliance of the said rule.
According to the memo that was sent to the press, this decision was discussed with USJ-R president, Fr. Cristopher Maspara, OAR, who gave his word that the school will abide by the league’s decision.
USJ-R now dropped to 0-2 while UC improved to 2-1 in the men’s basketball tournament.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
